aespa’s “Aging Visuals” In Unedited Photos Trigger Scathing Reactions 

aespa recently became the subject of a viral online debate after a post criticizing the group’s appearance gained attention on a Korean forum.

The post featured close-up solo photos of each member taken at the press conference for their upcoming film Lemonade. Unlike heavily edited fansite images, the pictures were standard press photos that showed the members’ faces up close with minimal retouching.

However, the original poster was far from impressed.

They all look like grandmas… Well, I guess they’re old ladies for idols. “Lemonade” doesn’t suit them at all. It’s way too sour and gives off a stale, washed-up vibe.

If you’re 27, you’re basically an ajumma (middle-aged woman) in real life anyway;;;;.

— Viral post on Pann

Rather than agreeing, most netizens pushed back against the extreme hate.

Many noted that the members are still in their early-to-mid twenties and have already achieved remarkable success at a young age. Others felt the post said more about the original poster than it did about aespa.

• “Reading this post, it really hits me again how insanely young they all are. They’ve already achieved so much, and they’re still people born in 2000 and 2002. Is that for real?”
• “They’re still only 23–26 years old. I’m jealous.”
• “Even if you turned back time so that you were 15 years younger than you are now, and they were all 15 years older than they are in those photos, they’d still be living more valuable lives than you. LOL.”
• “They’re still ridiculously young… I’m jealous.”
• “Even if I could trade my current age, I’d still choose to be Karina.”